Infested
Lest you think our new life in the Adirondacks is all hiking, snowshoeing, skiing, wood stoves, comfy chairs and a cozy log cabin (ok, most of the time it is), I have a little confession for you. Our house is INFESTED and WE CAN’T TAKE IT ANY LONGER.
I posted a while back about our little ant problem. Thankfully, with a bit of determination the ants packed up and moved out. Or we killed them all. Whatever. But what I haven’t told you is that we have a fly problem, and a ladybug problem, and an occasional big, disgusting, grasshopper-like-thingy problem. It’s so gross.
I’m tired of playing fly hunter, I’m sick of gently relocating ladybugs because they’re cute and harmless and I can’t bring myself to swat them, and I’m sure as hell done with finding nasty little grasshopper-like-thingies in my light fixtures. I mean, yeah, it’s mildly entertaining when the cat finds a bug nearing its end and tortures it into the afterlife. And my inner 5-year-old thinks it’s hilarious when the dead (or dying) bug becomes dinner and the cat gets a disappointed and disgusted look on his face like he totally thought it would taste better than THAT.
But it’s not funny enough to keep putting up with these f@#$%^&. As of this afternoon our house WILL be bug-proofed – every crack will be sealed, every hole will be plugged, every drain will be doused. And for the ones that have already made it inside? They will be hunted, and squashed, and swatted, and fly papered, and vacuumed, and… what other evil things can we do to them?
If you have any other bug-proofing tips, short of calling the Orkin man, PLEASE let us know.
We’re desperate and I just might not make it until the REAL black fly season.
Judging from those pictures on your original Ant-post, those are carpenter ants.
You have some wet or damp wood somewhere. That’s where they are nesting.
I battled the same problem for almost a year before I declared Total War on the pests.
First, I tracked their movements. They were both inside and outside the house. Had some decaying sill areas where they entered, also some rotting wood outside.
Second, I eliminated all rotting wood. This meant a total demo of our mud-room exposing the studs to find the areas of decay/ants. OMG, it was freaking incredible.
Then, all entrances from outside were caulked and painted.
Inside, all rotting wood removed or repaired.
MY BIG SECRET: Diatomaceous Earth
That stuff doesn’t kill immediately, but will eventually eliminate them. Plus, it lasts forever in nooks and crannies. I dusted all the stud-bays, plus everywhere I could find cracks.
That was last winter and no ants at all this year.
Good Luck!
Oooh no! Carpenter ants? I always thought carpenter ants were big suckers, not the tiny black ants. Though there were a few big ones here and there… Ugh. We do need to move our wood piles further from the house, we just don’t have a better place to put them yet. I really appreciate the advice. We’ll have to pick up some diatomaceous earth. I got a kick out of the description of it on its Wiki page: “it is composed of microscopically-small, coffin-like, hollow particles.” That’s totally what we need – little tiny ant coffins. Thanks!